White House Rifleman Given Sentence Of 40 Years In Prison Jury Ruled Colorado Man Sane When He Tried To Kill President

Francisco Martin Duran, who lost a bid to convince jurors that he was insane, was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison Thursday for raking the White House with rifle fire last October.

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Richey, noting that Duran was convicted in April of attempted assassination of President Clinton and on nine other assault and weapons-related charges, said that such crimes “cannot be tolerated in a free society.”

Duran’s shooting spree from a public sidewalk, together with the April 19 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, were key factors leading Clinton last month to tighten security around the White House, including closing a two-block stretch of Pennsylvania Ave. to vehicular traffic.

Before imposing the stiff sentence, which he said was largely dictated by congressionally mandated sentencing guidelines, Richey read parts of a letter that he received this week from Ronald K. Noble, a Treasury Department official with supervisory authority over the Secret Service.

The letter said that the semiautomatic rifle shots fired by the young Colorado hotel worker marked “the first shooting directed at the White House in over 150 years.” Noble told Richey that Duran’s actions “were an assault on all people of the United States, as well as on the president.”

The judge told Duran that, even though no one was injured, his rifle fire could have penetrated White House windows where the president’s family resided. Besides the prison term, he assessed Duran $500 in court costs and $3,200 to cover the cost of repairing the bullet-scarred facade of the executive mansion.

“The purpose of a sentence is deterrence as well as punishment,” Richey told the defendant. “Perhaps others will consider not doing what you have done.”

Before he was sentenced, Duran, 26, and said he deeply regretted his actions.

“My actions on Oct. 29 were inexcusable,” he said softly. “I very much wanted to die that day. I not only ruined my future but that of my wife and 6-year-old son.”